Tomorrow
is Election Day in America! Once every four years, we, as citizens of the
United States, have the right to elect our next leader in the form of a truly
democratic voting process (due in part to the Electoral College).
I
am not here to tell you who to vote for, nor am I here to specifically provide
opinionated commentary regarding Hillary R. Clinton and Donald J. Trump, the
two primary candidates hoping to come out as the victor on Tuesday evening.
I
do not advocate that you ever vote for any one candidate based on a single
issue; all issues need to be considered when making a choice for the leader of
your country. However, since this is an educational blog, I do want to list
where the two candidates stand in terms of the issues pertaining to education.
Use this information to help guide your vote whenever you walk into the voting
booth on Tuesday.
The
following information has been copied, word for word, form both candidates’
campaign websites.
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Donald J. Trump
·
Immediately
add an additional federal investment of $20 billion towards school choice. This
will be done by reprioritizing existing federal dollars.
·
Give
states the option to allow these funds to follow the student to the public or
private school they attend. Distribution of this grant will favor states that
have private school choice, magnet schools and charter laws, encouraging them
to participate.
·
Establish
the national goal of providing school choice to every one of the 11 million
school aged children living in poverty.
·
If
the states collectively contribute another $110 billion of their own education
budgets toward school choice, on top of the $20 billion in federal dollars,
that could provide $12,000 in school choice funds to every K-12 student who
today lives in poverty.
·
Work
with Congress on reforms to ensure universities are making a good faith effort
to reduce the cost of college and student debt in exchange for the federal tax
breaks and tax dollars.
·
Ensure
that the opportunity to attend a two or four-year college, or to pursue a trade
or a skill set through vocational and technical education, will be easier to
access, pay for, and finish.
KEY
ISSUES
At
the state and federal level, the United States spends more than $620 billion on
K-12 education each year. That’s an average of about $12,296 for every student
enrolled in our elementary and secondary public schools.
We
spend more per student than almost any other major country in the world. Yet,
our students perform near the bottom of the pack for major large advanced
countries.
Our
students continue to lag behind their peers worldwide in knowledge gained. [American Federation for Children Growth Fund]
Among
34 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development nations, the Program
for International Student Assessment (PISA) found 27 countries outperformed U.S
students in math. [National Center for Education Statistics]
The
same assessment found 17 countries outperformed U.S. students in reading. [National
Center for Education Statistics]
Our
largest cities spend some of the largest amounts of money on public schools:
·
New
York City spends $20,226 per student.
·
Baltimore
spends $15,287 per student.
·
Chicago
spends $11,976 per student.
·
Los
Angeles spends $10,602 per student.
School
choice is vital to reverse inequities in education and failing
government schools in Democrat-controlled inner cities. According to the
National Assessment of Education Progress, only one in six African-American
students in the eighth grade are considered proficient in math and reading. In
2016, over 2 million high school graduates took the ACT:
45
percent of all students tested met three or more benchmarks related to college
preparedness.
Only
11 percent of African American students tested met three or more of the
benchmarks for college and career readiness. [The Condition of College and Career Readiness, 2016]
It
is time for school choice to help free children from failing government schools
and close the achievement gap. School choice is the civil rights issue of our
time.
CONTRAST
WITH HILLARY CLINTON
Hillary
opposes school choice, furthering education inequities in America and denying
low-income African-American and Latino children the future they deserve.
Hillary
Clinton claims Donald Trump’s school choice proposal would “decimate public
schools across America.”
It
is no surprise Mrs. Clinton opposes school choice because she is supported by
the staunchest opponents of school choice – The American Federation of Teachers
super PAC – which donated $1.6 million to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton
Foundation and more than $2 million to Hillary’s 2016 presidential campaign. [Wall Street Journal, June 28, 2016]
Hillary R. Clinton
As president, Hillary will:
Launch a national campaign to
modernize and elevate the profession of teaching. America is asking more of our educators than ever before.
They are preparing our kids for a competitive economy, staying on top of new pedagogies,
and filling gaps that we as a country have neglected—like giving low-income
kids, English-language learners, and kids with disabilities the support they
need to thrive. We ask so much of our educators, but we aren’t setting them up
for success. That’s why Hillary will launch a national campaign to elevate and
modernize the teaching profession, by preparing, supporting, and paying every
child’s teacher as if the future of our country is in their hands—because it
is.
Provide every student in America an
opportunity to learn computer science.
There are more than half a million open jobs that require computing
skills—across the country and in every major industry. But the majority of
schools in the United States don’t offer computer science. Hillary will provide
states and school districts funding to help scale computer science instruction
and lesson programs that improve student achievement or increase college
enrollment and completion in CS Ed fields.
Rebuild America’s schools. In cities and rural communities across America, there are
public schools that are falling apart—schools where students are learning in
classrooms with rodents and mold. That’s unacceptable, and it has to change.
That’s why Hillary will build on the highly successful Build America Bonds
program to provide cities and towns the capital they need to rebuild their
schools. These “Modernize Every School Bonds” will double the Build America
Bonds subsidy for efforts to fix and modernize America’s classrooms—from
increasing energy efficiency and tackling asbestos to upgrading science labs
and high-speed broadband.
Dismantle the school-to-prison
pipeline. Schools should be safe places for
students to learn and grow. But in too many communities, student discipline is
overly harsh—and these harsh measures disproportionately affect African
American students and those with the greatest economic, social, and academic
needs. Hillary will work to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline by
providing $2 billion in support to schools to reform overly punitive
disciplinary policies, calling on states to reform school disturbance laws, and
encouraging states to use federal education funding to implement social and
emotional support interventions.
Hillary has been working to improve
and support our public schools for decades:
As a young law student working for
Marian Wright Edelman, Hillary went undercover to investigate “segregation
academies” in Alabama.
As first lady of Arkansas, she
chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Commission, fighting to raise
academic standards, increase teacher salaries, and reduce class sizes.
As first lady of the United States,
she chaired the first-ever convening on Hispanic children and youth, which
focused on improving access to educational opportunities.
As a U.S. senator, she served on the
Senate Health, Education and Labor Committee, as a key member shaping the No
Child Left Behind Act, with the hope that it would bring needed resources and
real accountability to improve educational opportunities for our most disadvantaged
students.
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I will now leave you to digest the
information, consider the candidates’ stances, and reflect on who you are
inclined to vote for.
Regardless who you vote for, may the
best candidate reign supreme!
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